Navy of Mexico Seized 726 kilos of Cocaine in the Pacific Near the Border with Guatemala

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) – Naval officers seized 726 kilos of cocaine and arrested six suspected traffickers in the Pacific off the coast of the state of Chiapas (southeast), near the border with Guatemala, the Mexican government reported Wednesday. .

The Secretariat (ministry) of Navy-Navy of Mexico indicated, in a statement, that the drug and the individuals were detected in two operations carried out off the coast of Puerto Chiapas, located 43 kilometers from Mexico’s southern border.

In a first action, officers of an oceanic patrol intercepted two boats manned by the six suspected smugglers after a helicopter sighted them in the Pacific during a surveillance tour.

In addition to arresting the crew, Mexican Navy personnel found three packages of 90 kilos of cocaine on the vessels, the agency said.

The naval elements recovered later 24 packages with 636 kilos of cocaine that floated in Pacific waters, some 99 nautical miles (183 kilometers) southwest of Puerto Chiapas, after being abandoned.

“It should be noted that this assurance prevented the aforementioned cargo from being recovered by other vessels belonging to organized crime and reached its final destination,” said the Mexican portfolio.

The Navy-Navy of Mexico has said before that sometimes drug traffickers abandon shipments of cocaine on the high seas to be taken back by accomplices, usually following electronic signals from devices placed on the drug.

In general, cocaine seized in the Mexican Pacific is smuggled by drug cartels by sea from South America or Central America to later traffic it to the United States, as the agency has indicated before.